The Academy's Joke Character 151
제151화
Baekyang(白蜽) (1)
Dokkaebi do not make promises.
No, they are reluctant to make even the simplest of promises.
It is a natural thing.
Because the first [Dokkaebi King], 'Gildal', decreed that a dokkaebi must keep their promise even in death.
Thus, for a dokkaebi, making a promise was practically the same as staking their life.
And Baekyang did so willingly.
-Oz-nim is my benefactor, so I will definitely protect you. It's a promise. As for Fist King-nim, well, I'll see how it goes.
Like a prank, flowing smoothly.
Without anyone noticing, she casually took out her own heart and held it out to the other person.
'How could I not do so?'
She had a lifelong cherished wish.
Even though she had been pouring her entire life into it, she never once thought it would come true.
The idea that humans and dokkaebi could understand and accept each other.
She thought such a miracle that could transcend even racial differences would never happen. Because that's what she believed.
Even she, who had strived her whole life, found it difficult to understand humans, and awkwardness from their differences was inevitable.
Who would understand her?
Where in the world was there a person who made an effort to understand dokkaebi?
'But such a person, appeared.'
But there was.
Of all people, it was the human she disliked the most, who, more clearly than anyone else, had been closing the gap between them.
That was certainly a realm of talent.
'It was the fruit of effort, though.'
Hadn't he used a fragment of that talent for the sake of dokkaebi, no, perhaps for her alone?
To him, it might have just been a passing path.
It might have been a field he looked into out of boredom because it seemed convenient.
'I.'
But she was inside that fog, and he pulled her out.
Until that night when she saw him pointing his finger at the empty air, Baekyang had never imagined things would turn out this way.
She simply thought it was magic practice. Seeing him so serious and earnest, she thought it must be something he truly wished to complete.
'How could I.'
And that effort was used for her. Its original purpose might have been different, but the very first time, it was used for her when she was collapsed.
'Could I not love him?'
The entire life of a dokkaebi.
The person who guided her toward its final destination.
The person who willingly became a lighthouse for her as she drifted through a fog where she couldn't see an inch ahead.
The person who cut the chains binding her and pushed her forward so she could settle her past mistakes.
Such a person.
How could she not love him?
'A cruel person...'
Her world changed.
Her gaze, which used to wander through the murky fog searching for something she didn't even know was there, was now directed at a pair of blue eyes.
'They say a dokkaebi who plays with hearts is the worst kind of scoundrel...'
Her daily life changed.
Her cold touch, which used to search for a path by pressing against the air and the ground, now grasped the hem of a garment that held the stars.
'Just how much of a scoundrel are you, to shake my heart this much?'
She was hot. She had been hot all along.
Perhaps it was because she was a white dokkaebi who handled snow and ice, but it was also because she thought she, herself, could not accept warmth.
She cursed herself.
That she must not feel warmth, that with her past mistakes, she had to live her entire life in the cold.
Yes, because she thought that way.
She had to feel the heat even if she forced herself to. She had to distance herself from warmth.
'This scorching emotion, now.'
But now, she finds herself craving it.
The warmth she felt when she playfully burrowed into his embrace was something cozy and tender, as if she were being addicted to it.
That brief warmth melted her entire frozen lifetime.
'I can't even control it.'
Baekyang is weak.
She is far too lacking to stand beside the human she admires and loves. It is a fact she knows.
He is a person she reached in a mere fraction of her lifetime.
How much help could she possibly be to such a remarkable person?
'And I don't even want to control it.'
But that didn't mean she wanted to stay still.
She was late. Her departure was far too delayed for someone who had been walking the path with infinitely leisurely steps.
Beside that person, there were already many who could throw their lives away for him.
People who were more capable than her, people who had worked harder for him than her.
There were so many of them.
"Thank you."
That is why, when he left her behind. She was sad.
She collapsed alone and wailed at the fact that no matter how hard she tried, she was nothing but a burden.
Still, she stood up.
Because she had promised. Because she had promised that no matter what happened, she would protect him.
It was a promise made alone, but it was a promise she had to keep even if she lost her life.
That is why, the moment she realized Oz was in danger far away.
She could feel that her cold heart was burning hotter than it ever had before.
When Baekyang burrowed into Oz's arms, she had left a mark.
A dokkaebi's trick, a chance to take his place.
She playfully carved it onto his heart.
"I love you, you know."
A dokkaebi prank
[Moonlit Step]
She played a prank, just like a dokkaebi.
It was a prank staked on her life.
Probably a prank that would drive her to her own death.
Still, she believes it will be a death worth having. If she can die for the person she loves tirelessly, if she can protect him.
Then there could be no death more valuable than this.
The love of the white dokkaebi who handled snow and ice was, paradoxically.
As hot as a raging flame that burns even the soul.
*
*
*
"Huh?"
I'm going to die.
That's what I thought.
Because I had been too impatient and hadn't seen what was right in front of me.
"What on earth is this...?"
So when my vision twisted in an instant, I wondered if I was seeing my life flash before my eyes. Or if I had been affected by the Demonic Energy and was seeing things.
"Ugh!"
But the pain, like being beaten all over with a club, and the moment I saw the golden apple-shaped fruit clutched in my hand, I could be certain.
This is not a dream, and I have obtained the fruit.
When I raised my head, I could see the World Tree far away, shattering like an old tree that couldn't withstand time, its branches shaking wildly.
It must be because I took the fruit.
The moment the World Tree realized the last reason it had to endure had fallen from its body, it stopped resisting.
That fruition is in my hand.
"Huh...?"
But the moment I was about to rejoice at that fact. I realized.
"Huhh...?"
The reason I am here.
The reason I moved to this impossible location as if possessed by something.
Something someone had spat at me.
-If you ever fall into danger. The one who dies might not be you, but that one.
A cruel and terrible assumption.
"...Baekyang?"
It didn't take long to notice that it had become a reality right before my eyes.
Because she, who had been like a pure white snowflake, was dyed red.
At that sight which captured my eyes.
"Why are you...?"
Numerous assumptions rose and fell in my head.
Giving me the answer.
"Uh... ."
Baekyang took my place. Originally, the one who should have died was me.
The one who did something stupid was me, the one who ruined things out of impatience was me.
Why is she the one collapsed there, instead of me?
I had always kept in mind that someone could die. This is the kind of world it is. Someone dying isn't something particularly unusual.
Didn't the original Oz do just that? So I had been prepared for the possibility that even if I did my best, someone might die.
But it wasn't supposed to be in this way. I had thought that I might fail to save someone because my strength was lacking.
"Why......."
But there was never a single time, I swear, where I thought she would die because of me.
That was me killing her.
Simply because I thought the path might be easier, I never even tried to persuade her, even a little.
Even though I brought her here for my own convenience, if I had at least tried to explain and asked her to wait quietly.
At the very least, she might not have died like this.
"Guhk!"
I crawl along the floor, heading toward where Baekyang is. It's far too distant.
The distance was this vast.
The gap between her and me had grown this wide.
Just when I thought we'd finally grown a bit closer, isn't this no different from me having pushed her away with my own hands?
"Baekyang."
I sank down, and when I laboriously lifted her up and held her, her body was cold. It was only natural, since she was a white dokkaebi who wields snow and ice.
So, it's fine.
It will be fine.
It's simply that the being called Baekyang inherently has a cold body.
Please....... She has to be fine.
But what trickled down my hand was so terribly hot.
Even her hair, which seemed to symbolize her snowfields, was dyed red.
"Baekyang......."
Baekyang, bleeding out and dying, was still looking at me.
She was smiling.
Without a single word, as if she'd accomplished something, she was smiling as if satisfied.
"Ha......."
She was not dead yet.
She was dying, but she still breathed. [The One Who Challenges Divinity] could heal her enough to regenerate even if all the bones in her body were crushed.
If I had that, saving her wouldn't be a difficult task.
But it's impossible. I was so utterly stupid that I threw that means away.
Thanks to the double-edged sword called [Prometheus], there's no more mana left within me. Even though I knew it was a technique with no reverse gear.
"......."
If so, there's only one means left.
My gaze naturally drifts toward the golden fruit resembling an apple, still held in my one hand.
The World Tree's Fruit.
My goal.
The totality of 500 years of the World Tree's life, condensed into a single place, which could possibly save Tia.
The possibility to change a despairing future that would plunge headlong into a situation you could rightly call a post-apocalypse.
"I feel like puking......."
Even now that the situation has come to this, I find myself hesitating. That disgusts me beyond measure.
Did I think I was weighing the life of a single dokkaebi against the fate of the world on a scale?
Who am I?
Who the hell am I to place those two things on a scale?
I couldn't even properly see Baekyang right before my eyes. Did I plan to act like some prophet just because I knew the flow of the game?
This is a chance to fix my mistake.
A chance to make amends for a fatal mistake that, originally, never would have been offered.
I should know well just how miraculous that kind of chance is.
Right now, there's nothing else to save Baekyang but this. If this stems from my mistake, it's right that I fix it myself.
How can a human who can't even manage that spout nonsense about saving the world?
Crunch.
I bite into the World Tree's Fruit.
There's no way the current Baekyang can directly eat a firm fruit like this apple. I have to finely crush the flesh and feed it to her.
From the moment I put the fruit in my mouth, Baekyang started shaking her head and struggling. She's saying don't waste it on her. How presumptuous.
I look at the now, not the distant future.
With that thought, the hesitation vanished. It's something I obviously had to do.
"......."
"Eung-eub......."
Like a mother bird feeding its chicks, I pour the crushed flesh of the fruit into Baekyang's mouth.
Baekyang, who seemed to resist at first, slowly begins to accept the fruit I'm feeding her and eat it.
Her complexion seems to regain a bit of color. The wound that had pierced her heart also looks like it's closed up a little.
"Hooo......."
It has an effect.
The moment I confirm that, a bit of relief blooms in my heart, however slight.
Yes, this is rather for the better.
Being afraid of a future that hasn't even arrived yet is better than regretting this current moment for a lifetime.
Crunch.
I repeat the same action over and over.
Each time, Baekyang's color improves and her wounds heal.
Crunch.
The thought that it was a waste never crossed my mind.
As long as it could save her, even if there was one more fruit, I would have used it on her.
Crunch.
The only thing I'm afraid of.
Is the case where I've gone this far and still cannot save her.
Therefore, I held onto her desperately, so as not to waste a single drop of the fruit's pulp.
*
*
*
Alexios was watching Oz from afar as he fed the World Tree's Fruit to Baekyang.
"......."
He knew it the moment he saw it.
That Oz had given up on the World Tree's Fruit, the fruit Oz had begged him for with a bowed head and rushed toward with uncharacteristic impatience.
That was what astonished him.
"Tch......."
Oz ultimately failed.
As a result of ignoring his advice, he committed a preposterous mistake. He made the same mistake as himself.
But Oz rectified his mistake. Not only did he pathetically crawl across the ground, but he even used the fruit he had so desperately sought.
Just how difficult a decision that was could be seen from the attitude Oz had shown all along.
That Oz, who was so calm and composed, coveted it enough to reveal his impatience.
Originally, he had even been planning to beat Oz to a pulp right up to the brink of death, but he couldn't do it.
Because Oz had accomplished what he himself could not.
Unlike him, who had run away from his own mistake, Oz could immediately give an answer on the spot.
"......."
Alexios looked down at Oz, who had collapsed and fainted from his accumulated injuries after feeding the fruit to Baekyang.
Even as he fell like that, perhaps meaning to protect Baekyang, he was clutching her body as if to shield it.
"Foolish bastard."
If the World Tree's Fruit truly served the role of the legendary elixir, then ingesting even a very small amount of the fruit could have healed Oz's wounds.
But unlike Baekyang, who had collapsed as if falling asleep in a relatively fine state, Oz's wounds were not treated.
He did not use a single drop for himself.
"Hup!"
Alexios hoisted the unconscious Baekyang and Oz onto his shoulders. The matter was finished.
He could not tell whether this challenge ended in failure or was spent to gain a costly lesson.
After all, he was only an assistant.
"Hm?"
Just as he was about to move, Alexios spotted a tree branch near the spot where the two had been lying, one that seemed to hold an unusually lingering vitality.
It was a branch of the World Tree.
"......Tch."
Alexios was also covered in wounds.
For him, who had been bearing the attacks of the guardians and the World Tree, even carrying the two unconscious people could be considered heavy labor.
Even so, Alexios picked up that branch.
Since it was a branch of the World Tree, its size and weight were preposterous, but he paid it no mind.
'Still, I suppose we need to leave with something, or he'll feel too wronged.'
Something like a branch of the World Tree was utterly useless to him, but it would be different for Oz, who was a magician.
Alexios hoped that Oz would conclude the result of this challenge not as a failure, but as a lesson.
And so, he made sure there was something gained. Because then, even if it was insufficient, it wouldn't be a failure.
"......Mana's oath. Just try not taking effect."
Muttering that, he advanced through the forest, ignoring the severe pain and fatigue.
I Became a Joke Character at the Academy, Episode 151
Written by
Yangparang
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Kim Tae-hyun
Cover
RONOPU
ISBN
979-11-6730-143-7 (05810)
ⓒ2021, Yangparang
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